Reviews

Anonymous gave Kingswood Health Centre a rating of 1 stars

Poor service

I live in Kingswood but apparently I am out of the area for what is apparently "Kingswood Health Centre" I live less than 2 miles from the surgery and actually live in Kingswood.

The reception staff were quite abrupt when telling me the above and whilst I wanted to see a doctor I was only offered a nurse, I am not a frequent attender and if I wanted to see a nurse I would have asked to see one. You can rarely get an appointment within a few weeks if you wish to see a certain doctor.

Then when I wanted to cancel an appointment there was no designated easy way in which I could do this, without going through the various options within a long winded telephone system, all the while this was costing me. I chose the option for a routine appointment as it was a routine appointment I wished to cancel this was at 8:30am for an appointment that morning, to be I told to phone after 10:30 and then the system promptly cut me off with no option but to phone again to go through the whole process again, in order to select another option to try to speak to the reception staff to enable another patient to have my appointment.

I have had a few friends recommend other local surgeries to me, so I am not sorry that I am "out of Kingswood Health Centre Area". A lot of my friends have experienced similar and are also looking to change surgeries to one where you can actually see a doctor.

Anonymous gave Kingswood Health Centre a rating of 5 stars

Excellent surgery

Nothing but praise for the staff at the surgery - I have seen a number of GP's and they are all extremely good - even when you have to wait a bit of time, you know it's worth it. The building is lovely and staff very friendly. Highly recommended.

Peter Hawkins gave Kingswood Health Centre a rating of 5 stars

Go service

Having used this service for 30 years with the usual family ailments, it's only when you need to see a doctor with what you consider a serious problem do you then realise what an excellent service is available, my thanks to my doctor and their colleagues.Yes you may have to wait an extra 10 minutes for your appointment, but I've waited longer for a pizza!

Natalie curtis gave Kingswood Health Centre a rating of 1 stars

28 weeks for an appointment

Having booked an appointment twelve weeks in advance for the contraceptive implant, I turned up to my appointment only to be told that is missed it. Turns out it had been changed by the surgery without any notification. I then contacted the surgery 5 times by phone, three times in person to arrange another appointment. Eventually after hounding them for for weeks, the nurse contacts me and says I have to wait until the end of October for another one. If you want an appointment within a reasonable time frame, I'd go somewhere else.

Anonymous gave Kingswood Health Centre a rating of 5 stars

Dad needed urgent home visit

At 5.45 pm last night my elderly dad suddenly became very unwell. He was having breathing problems, a high temperature and was confused. I rang the surgery and spoke to one of the receptionists. The receptionist was very kind and professional which I appreciated as I was very worried. The doctor rang me back and said they would call in on their way home to see him. By 7pm the doctor had visited and he was able to start treatment immediately for a chest infection. I work within the NHS and find that this site often only gets used for negative feedback, I wanted to say that I appreciated that the doctor did a home visit so late at such short notice as this has meant he was able to avoid an admission to hospital. it is very reassuring, when caring for an elderly relative to have this level of support, thankyou.

Marie gave Kingswood Health Centre a rating of 5 stars

AMAZING, BRILLIANT - DR KERFOOT

Over the past 24 months I have visited the Dr in respect of a mole which seemed to be changing shape on the lobe of my ear. approx. 18 months ago the Dr examined this mole and advised me to keep an eye on it and if it should change shape at all to go back. Approx. 2 weeks ago this mole started to change shape and started to bleed so as advised I made an appointment to see the Dr. The appoint was made (I was about to go on holiday for one week) so the appointment was made for the week of my return. Whilst on holiday I had a phone call from the surgery to say that the Dr could actually see me a week earlier - great except I was a distance away and couldn't get back to the surgery but did think this was really efficient.

I attended the surgery yesterday and the Dr took a look at the mole again and said that although was 99% sure it was nothing nasty, it was obviously worrying me and the Dr would remove it. I could not believe it and with a little wait for his surgery to finish the Dr painlessly removed this mole. It was all done in a mini operating room. The Dr immediately put me at ease and explained exactly what the Dr would be doing. It was quickly removed, I did not feel a thing and can honestly say the experience was something that I would have expected had I paid privately to have this done. I feel like recommending this surgery to all my friends - but won't because this practice by the look of it is already bursting with patients.

Anonymous gave Kingswood Health Centre a rating of 1 stars

Inaccurate information and unwilling to co-operate

What I liked

I have been registered at Kingswood Health Centre (previously Alma Road Surgery) for most of my life, but since the re-development in particular it has gotten much worse. In general it has always been busy, but now it takes me about 2 weeks until I can see a doctor, and when I do they are almost always running late. There are simply not enough appointments for the number of registered patients. Credit to the receptionists though - they are insanely busy but polite and helpful.

My recent trips to this GP surgery have mostly been negative. With the exception of one lovely locum doctor, I have been refused tests and referrals there for the same problem for months, and been repeatedly diagnosed (with no evidence) with a condition that I have since found out I do not have at all - as I said on numerous occasions to the two GPs that patronisingly told me it was 'stress'. This has happened many times throughout my life at this surgery - I have been falsely diagnosed with multiple illnesses, and ignored when I have had serious ones, e.g. a highly contagious skin condition that spread to other children when I was at school. I have also irresponsibly been given terrible advice based on little evidence, .e.g I was feeling tired and dizzy when I ate, so the doctor told me to go on a low-GI diet because I might have had diabetes. Later on it turned out that I didn't have diabetes at all but was in fact underweight - a fact that the low-GI diet the doctor told me to assume made much worse.

All of these experiences have led to my complete distrust of Kingswood Health Centre. When I lived elsewhere my doctors discovered a life long and potentially life-threatening condition that my doctors in Kingswood had never picked up, and then they helped me with other problems no one had paid attention to, like eczema and tinnitus. I felt like these doctors cared about me. I do not feel like this when I go to Kingswood Health Centre. If I could go to another surgery I would.

Sminty gave Kingswood Health Centre a rating of 2 stars

Reception staff are not very friendly.

Every time I call the surgery, I have to hold for 5+ minutes, if I'm lucky. Then the reception staff are not very friendly or helpful. The one and only time I visited a doctor there, they were very helpful and friendly.

Thank you for your feedback and I am sorry that you were holding for over five minutes on our telephone system. I am unsure from your comment of the day/time you rang, but our phones are extremely busy on a Monday with urgent enquiries, and each day we ask that our patients ring after 10:30 with any routine matters.

We are aware of the increasing demand on our telephone system, at present which is receiving over 1,000 calls per day. I can confirm that we are employing more reception staff to deal with this; in line with reviewing the number of staff we have available to answer calls at our busiest times.

I am sorry that our receptionist you spoke to did not sound helpful or friendly on this occasion, and hope that you will not feel the same on any subsequent phone calls.

Thank you for your kind words about your experience of seeing a GP at the surgery, which I shall pass on to them.